"MOTHER NATURE" IS A REPRESENTATION OF FERTILITY, GROWTH, AND LIFE. TO THE ALGONQUIN INDIANS, SHE IS KNOWN AS "NOKOMIS", THE "GRANDMOTHER "WHO LIVES BELOW THE HEAVENLY CLOUDS AND CONTINUOUSLY FEED THE PLANTS, ANIMALS AND HUMANS FROM HER AMPLE BOSOM. HER NAME MEANS GRANDMOTHER. NOKOMIS GAVE BIRTH TO ALL CREATURES AND ALSO CREATED FOOD FOR HUMANITY. SHE NURTURES ALL LIVING THINGS AND FEEDS ALL LIVING THINGS...PLANTS, ANIMALS AND MEN, AND IT IS HER RESPONSIBILITY TO FEED ALL OF THE LIVING THINGS IN THE WORLD.

ACCORDING TO THE GREAT POET, HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, "NOKOMIS "FELL TO EARTH AND GAVE BIRTH TO A GIRL NAMED "WENONAH", THE SPIRIT OF CORN, WHO GREW UP AND BECAME THE MOTHER OF "HIAWATHA. NOKOMIS" WAS THE NAME OF "HIAWATHA'S" GRANDMOTHER IN LONGFELLOW'S POEM, "THE SONG OF HIAWATHA".

"BY THE SHORES OF GITCHE GUMEE, "By the shining Big-Sea-Water,

Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.

Dark behind it rose the forest.

ACCORDING TO THE POEM, DESPITE "NOKOMIS' "WARNINGS, THE LOVELY "WENONAH" IS SEDUCED BY THE "WEST WIND, MUDJEKEEWIS, "

"TILL SHE BORE A SON IN SORROW"BORE A SON OF LOVE AND SORROW"THUS WAS BORN MY HIAWATHA."

Afterward, having been abandoned by the heartless "Mudjekeewis, Wenonah "dies in childbirth, leaving "Hiawatha" to be raised by "Nokomis. The wrinkled old Nokomis/Nursed the little Hiawatha" and educates him.